Pioneer Day

Bracken told his uncles about our Pioneer Day FHE last year, and they thought we’d better celebrate our own Pioneer Day. 

We sang pioneer songs and shared our favorite pioneer stories while we made cookies.  If it had been left to me we would have pulled around a cardboard box with a rope for our handcart, but Sarah made a great handcart out of a dolly and a laundry basket.  The little boys rounded up button up shirts, cowboy hats, bandanas and boots.  Sarah found skirts and bonnets for the girls.  When we left the house we almost had our own Pioneer Parade!

Then we went on a little trek to share cookies with some of their neighbors, where the kids explored their backyard and watched the farm animals. It was a fun afternoon! We have been having a great time in Richfield and I'm so glad Bracken and Chandra have been able to be around my family.  We miss Brian though and are SO excited to see him soon.

Manly Adventures

When I was a little girl, I'd go on "Daddy Daughter Dates." So when Bracken left on a special outing with Brian, I'd say, "have fun on your Daddy date!" I have now been corrected. Apparently, that is a very unmanly name for a guy outing. So Brian and Bracken have coined the term "Manly Adventure" for their not-Daddy-dates.

Bracken went bat researching with Brian again last night. He prepared by dressing himself in pajamas, blue rain boots, his super hero cape, and filling his Cat-in-the-Hat backpack with cookies, popcorn, books, and a dry erase board. He was so excited to go, and stayed outside and had Brian pull him on his little blue bike with a rope until it was time to go.

And here's an excerpt out of Bracken's journal from their last bat researching trip, just because I think it's cute:

"I went on a manly adventure with Daddy to do bat research. We went up a high mountain in the truck and I got to sit on his lap in the front seat on the dirt road. When we got to the main road I sat in my caarseat because sometimes a main road is pretty dangerous...

I saw lots of deer too. Not a hundred billion, just a little bit and some more. Probably only almost twenty-thousand deer...

I want to go bat researching with Dad again. We didn't see any bats though. Daddy said we were listening for them but I didn't hear any either."

Bike wreck and family.

I wrecked my bike a week and a half ago and ended up with a broken collar bone and a gash in the back of my head.  I’m really grateful it wasn’t worse and that no one else was hurt, but the injury has certainly been limiting.  After Glade and Shaylee’s wedding Brian had to go back to Cedar for work, but the kids and I stayed with my family for a few days so we could have the help we needed. 

Chandra loved my mom’s raspberries and would search for and eat raspberries for an hour at a time. Bracken had fun doing the chores with my little brothers, jumping on the trampoline and playing in the sandbox. Mom and Grandma made sure I was resting and that my kids had food and love. Thanks for all your help family!

Here are some portraits of my good looking siblings.  I took these under my parent's car port, the background is just the concrete floor.  I was super happy with how they turned out!